


Swear To God, But I’m A Non-Believer

by Lyoung_50



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Canonical Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 07:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15903486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyoung_50/pseuds/Lyoung_50
Summary: It wasn’t until he was knee deep in the swirling, noxious mist of The Bliss that it hit him. The weight of what he’s been doing here. The fighting. The killing.





	Swear To God, But I’m A Non-Believer

It wasn’t until he was knee deep in the swirling, noxious mist of The Bliss that it hit him. The weight of what he’s been doing here. The fighting. The killing.

The stains in his nail beds from the blood of every Peggie that he’s looted to pick up spare bullets and a few bucks along the back mountain roads glared at him accusingly.

“Murderer.” they whispered fleetingly.

“No, I…” He choked out, stumbling a bit in the knee-high grass. “I was just defending the county.”

The faces of all of those he’d taken out flash before him at high speed, making him a bit dizzy before they stopped on one that brought him fully to his knees.

The dirt and grass were damp with the condensation of the Bliss fog and soaked slowly through his borrowed jeans while he stared, wide-eyed and guilty, into frozen blue eyes.

John.

He’d shot John’s plane out of the sky, tracked him through the woods like a dog, and listened to him cough and wheeze his way through his dying words.

“What if Joseph’s right? Did you ever stop to think about that?”

He hadn’t. The man sounded like a guy off his mind on bath salts on a good day, and straight up insane on the bad. No one in their right mind would’ve considered that Joseph was right about his “visions” and the voices in his head being God. Now he was starting to question it. What the fuck was he supposed to do it the Collapse turned out to be real.

John’s final cough and the snap of the leather cord around his neck holding the key echoed through Rook’s mind like a gunshot. He even recoiled a bit at the sound.

He was so caught up in the loop of John dying beneath his hands that he didn’t hear the sound of gentle footsteps approaching until there were scuffed boots in his line of vision and a soft “shh” filling his ears.

His eyes trailed slowly up jean-clad legs, briefly stopping to survey the scraped and tarnished cross belt buckle before moving on to the jagged, scarred pink skin of the word “LUST” just above the buckle.

“Joseph.” Rook breathed out, half a sigh and half a whimper.

“Hello, again. You’ve been busy since we last spoke, hm?” Joseph’s voice was gentle and even, lulling him into comfortable ease despite the sparkling edges of his drug-fueled vision.

The last time he’d spoken to Joseph had been when he was behind the thick metal bars of Jacob’s cage, filthy, bleeding and starving. So much had happened since then he didn’t know where to begin. Hell. He’d killed his blood relatives since then.

He settled on “Where were you?”

“I’ve been busy too, of course. The Collapse is coming, and preparations don’t organize themselves.” There was a heavy pause. “And now, with two less sets of hands to help with preparing, I will be even busier. Won’t I?”

Rook bit his tongue so hard he tasted copper to stop himself from pointing out that it was a lot more than two. He knew which two Joseph meant.

“Yes, Joseph.” His words mirrored those that were uttered on a river bank what felt like an eternity before.

“Say their names, Deputy. Tell me the names of the men you killed and you will be forgiven.” He made it sound so easy.

“Jacob. I killed Jacob.” That was the easy one.

“My brother brought home so many demons that you’ve relieved him of. He will no longer know the agony that plagued him day in and day out. You’re forgiven. Go on.”

“J…John. I killed—.” It surprised him how much it didn’t surprise Joseph when his words broke off into a whine that started clawing out of his throat. His hands convulsed at his sides, grasping at blades of grass and running along them until the blades sliced through his palms.

“You know, many people in this world misunderstood John. He was…complex. Unique. He understood intimately from a young age the things about humanity that are so vicious.” Joseph sighed softly, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. “The world let John down. Time and again, it let him down. Our parents. The system. Me. But, When you walked into my church, I had such a vision, Deputy.”

The silence seemed to stretch endlessly while Joseph’s blue eyes burned into his.

“Vision of what?”

“Of you. And John. I’ve seen my brother die violently, horrifically as a result of his sins. If he continued on his path, he would not live to see our new Eden. But, then. Then I saw him with you. I saw him growing into an old man. I saw his wrath tamped down by love. His greed replaced with the love of making you happy. I saw a life worth fighting for.” He couldn’t ignore the crack in Joseph’s voice. “My Child, how he’d have loved you. With everything he had.”

He couldn’t take any more. His head bowed forward until his forehead bumped gently against Joseph’s abdomen. He felt a hand snake into his hair, stroking soothingly and heard the soft, melodic sound of ‘Amazing Grace’ being hummed as silent tears tracked down his dirt covered face.

“It’s not too late. You can still come with us. Join our family and come to Eden. One day, you’ll see him again. It’s hard to understand these emotions now, My Child, but you’re meant to have them. Come with me.”

‘All you have to do is say yes.’ John’s voice purred in his mind.

“Yes…yes, I’ll come with you.”

“Good. Now, let’s go home.”


End file.
